Mother’s Younger Brother Character Analysis in Ragtime

Mother’s Younger Brother grew up in Ohio with his older sister (Mother), and his father, Grandfather. A shy, sensitive, and driftless youth, he hasn’t accomplished much or found his path in life by the turn of the century. Instead of marrying or making his own way in the world, he follows Mother, Father, and Grandfather to New York, where he settles into Mother and Father’s home and begins working at Father’s company. When Evelyn Nesbit rises to notoriety, Younger Brother becomes obsessed with her and starts stalking her around the city. Eventually, he follows her to one of Emma Goldman’s lectures. Although the politics don’t affect him, the sight of Evelyn does, and he follows her back to Goldman’s boarding house. After accidentally revealing his feelings for her that night, he and Evelyn become lovers for a few months. But when Evelyn leaves Younger Brother for a ragtime dancer, he becomes despondent and listless once again. After suffering weeks of depression, he goes to Goldman in hopes of finding and reconnecting with Evelyn. Instead, Goldman begins to initiate him into the affairs of political and social reform. By the time Willie Conklin instigates a feud with Coalhouse Walker Jr. and Sarah—with whom Younger Brother had become good friends—dies, Younger Brother is a revolutionary waiting for a cause. He joins Coalhouse’s band and makes the bombs they use in their terror campaign across the city. After Coalhouse’s death, Younger Brother continues to live out his newfound values and he eventually winds up joining Emiliano Zapata’s insurgent army as they fight against dictatorship in Mexico. It’s in this fight that Younger Brother dies.

Mother’s Younger Brother Quotes in Ragtime

The Ragtime quotes below are all either spoken by Mother’s Younger Brother or refer to Mother’s Younger Brother. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

[Little Boy] felt that the circumstances of his family’s life operated against his need to see things and go places. For instance he had conceived an enormous interest in the works and career of Harry Houdini, the escape artist. But he had not been taken to a performance. Houdini was a headliner in the top vaudeville circuits. His audiences were poor people—carriers, peddlers, policemen, children. His life was absurd. He went all over the world accepting all kinds of bondage and escaping. He was roped to a chair. He escaped. He was chained to a ladder. He escaped. He was handcuffed, his legs were put in irons, he was tied up in a strait jacket and put in a locked cabinet. He escaped. He escaped form bank vaults, nailed-up barrels, sewn mailbags; he escaped from a zinc-lined Knabe piano case, a giant football, […] a rolltop desk, a sausage skin.

Related Characters: Mother’s Younger Brother, Little Boy, Mother, Father, Grandfather, Harry Houdini

Page Number and Citation: 6-7

Explanation and Analysis:

There is no question then that Younger Brother was fortunate to conceive a loyalty to the colored man. Standing at the pond he heard the lapping of the water against the front fenders of the Model T. He noted that the hood was unlatched, and lifting and folding it back, saw that the wires had been torn from the engine. The sun was now setting and it threw a reflection of blue sky on the dark water of the pond. There ran through him a small current of rage, perhaps one-hundredth, he knew, of what Coalhouse Walker must have felt, and it was salutary.

Related Characters: Mother’s Younger Brother, Coalhouse Walker Jr. , Willie Conklin, Father, Evelyn Nesbit

Related Symbols: Model T

Page Number and Citation: 182-183

Explanation and Analysis:

He’d always thought of himself as progressive. He believed in the perfectability of the republic. He thought, for instance, there was no reason the Negro could not with proper guidance carry every burden of human achievement. He did not believe in aristocracy except of the individual effort and vision. He felt his father’s loss of fortune had the advantage of saving him from the uncritical adoption of the prejudices of his class. But the air in this ball park open under the sky smelled like the back room of a saloon. Cigar smoke filled the stadium and, lit by the oblique rays of the afternoon sun, indicated the voluminous cavern of air in which he sat pressed upon as if by a foul universe, with the breathless wind of a ten-thousand-throated chorus in his ears shouting its praise and abuse.

Related Characters: Father, Little Boy, Coalhouse Walker Jr. , Mother’s Younger Brother, Mother

Page Number and Citation: 231

Explanation and Analysis:

Coalhouse Walker was never harsh or autocratic. He treated his followers with courtesy and only asked if they thought something ought to be done. He dealt with them out of his constant sorrow. His controlled rage affected them like the force of a magnet. He wanted no music in the basement quarters. No instrument of any kind. They embraced every discipline. They had brough in several cots and laid out a barracks. They shared kitchen chores and housecleaning chores. They believed they were going to die in a spectacular manner. This belief produced in them a dramatic, exalted self-awareness. Younger Brother was totally integrated in their community. He was one of them. He awoke every day into a state of solemn joy.

Related Characters: Coalhouse Walker Jr. , Mother’s Younger Brother

Page Number and Citation: 245

Explanation and Analysis:

Mother’s Younger Brother Character Timeline in Ragtime

The timeline below shows where the character Mother’s Younger Brother appears in Ragtime. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

Replication and Transformation Theme Icon

Mother’s Younger Brother, an isolated and driftless young man, is hopelessly in love with Evelyn Nesbit. On this... (full context)

...family sees Father off. At the train station, he shakes Little Boy’s and Mother’s Younger Brother’s hands. He kisses Mother’s cheek. When Peary’s expedition sets sail from New York City with... (full context)

Freedom, Human Dignity, and Justice Theme Icon

...the countryside. One treats his supporters to a picnic and fireworks choreographed by Mother’s Younger Brother. Afterward, Younger Brother slips onto the steamer boat carrying the voters back to the city,... (full context)

...clothes and drives to the Lower East Side, followed by a shy admirer (Mother’s Younger Brother). Tateh’s pride prevents him from accepting charity, so she commissions as many as 10 of... (full context)

Mother’s Younger Brother follows Goldman and Evelyn back to Goldman’s boarding house, hiding himself in the closet of... (full context)

...ease, Goldman now encourages her to shed her restrictive corset and other undergarment. Mother’s Younger Brother watches Goldman undress Evelyn and rub astringent over skin that has been bruised and indented... (full context)

Back in New Rochelle, Mother is fretting over Brother’s extended absence. She even searches his room, though she finds nothing out of place except... (full context)

...Grandfather taught Greek and Latin at an Episcopal seminar in Ohio, where she and Younger Brother grew up on a charming farm. She met Father during her last year of boarding... (full context)

...burly.” Her husband Thaw is smaller but nevertheless doughy. And her newest lover, Mother’s Younger Brother, is lean and muscular. In the wake of Tateh’s disappearance, Evelyn begins paying the rent... (full context)

When Evelyn isn’t with Younger Brother or fruitlessly searching the Lower East Side for her lost friends, she attends Thaw’s trial.... (full context)

...the divorce, but her mother-in-law’s private detectives introduce evidence about her affair with Mother’s Younger Brother, and she only gets $25,000. The paltry sum reminds her of a warning delivered by... (full context)

Mother’s Younger Brother has changed, too, mostly because Evelyn left him for a ragtime dancer. He’s grown thinner,... (full context)

When he returned to New Rochelle, Younger Brother brought with him Evelyn’s collection of Tateh’s silhouette portraits and a pair of her shoes.... (full context)

...he learns little from his uninspiring teacher. He reads pulp magazines. Mother, Father, and Younger Brother—all distracted by their own concerns—mostly leave him to the care of Grandfather. Grandfather mostly tells... (full context)

...to move of their own accord. Father came back from the arctic and Mother’s Younger Brother came back from New York physically and emotionally changed. He believes that the statues in... (full context)

...rags by Scott Joplin. The music is unlike anything any of them (except Mother’s Younger Brother) have ever heard. And everyone (except Father) is immediately moved by it. (full context)

Mother’s Younger Brother begins going back down to New York City that spring, mostly in search of the... (full context)

Younger Brother listens, rapt, as Goldman describes the ongoing armed revolt of the Mexican peasants, including the... (full context)

Eventually, however, Younger Brother does find himself alone with Goldman. She advises him to move on from Evelyn and... (full context)

...night. He also tells the family what happened. Sarah listens from the hallway as Younger Brother suggests that Coalhouse press charges and Father offers to help him find a lawyer. Coalhouse... (full context)

Younger Brother stands regarding Coalhouse’s now utterly destroyed Model T. He has been struggling mightily for what... (full context)

...left when he still had a chance, never mind the damage and the desecration), Younger Brother retorts that Father has never had to defend his own principles. Sarah retreats to the... (full context)

...the morning and tell them about Coalhouse. If he’s going to identify the musician, Younger Brother insists, he should also explain Coalhouse’s motive. Father is horrified to hear Younger Brother defend... (full context)

...members—his patronizing attitude toward Grandfather; the distance he’s allowed to grow between himself fand Younger Brother; his disinterest and lack of participation in Little Boy’s upbringing. When he learns about his... (full context)

As for Younger Brother, the family doesn’t think too much about his sudden absence, because he’s always been odd.... (full context)

Coalhouse Walker Jr. asks Younger Brother what he wants, and Younger Brother forgets his eloquent speech about justice and human dignity.... (full context)

...sent to case the mansion mistook the library for the residence. By the time Younger Brother realized this critical mistake, it was too late, so they occupied the library. When the... (full context)

...The band has wired the entire opulent building and all its treasures with dynamite. Younger Brother sits hunched over the detonator. When he turns, Washington realizes that he is a white... (full context)

...shock when he first walked in the library door the previous day and saw Younger Brother. Now, he confronts his brother-in-law, demanding that he explain himself for Mother’s benefit. Younger Brother... (full context)

...to call on the telephone when they’ve escaped. He embraces all of them, including Younger Brother, and sees them out the door—keeping Father as his hostage. After all, he jokes, all... (full context)

After returning to Harlem with the rest of the gang, Younger Brother takes the Model T and drives south and west across the country. Eventually, he winds... (full context)

By the time Younger Brother dies, Woodrow Wilson is in the White House and the world is on the brink... (full context)

...upstate New York in Mother’s new car, which she drives herself. The news of Younger Brother’s death drove the final wedge into her relationship with Father, and now he lives in... (full context)

Ragtime

Mother’s Younger Brother Character Analysis

Mother’s Younger Brother Quotes in Ragtime

Chapter 1 Quotes

Chapter 24 Quotes

Chapter 30 Quotes

Chapter 32 Quotes

Mother’s Younger Brother Character Timeline in Ragtime